Bangladeshi community marks Mother Language Day

Mother Language Day

Members of the Bangladeshi community living in Waterloo Region gathered Saturday to mark International Mother Language Day.

About 150 people gathered for musical performances, a documentary, poetry and more at the University of Waterloo. A floral memorial, Shahid Minar, was also created by university students.

International Mother Language Day has been observed every year since February 2000 to promote linguistic and cultural diversity and multilingualism.

The date represents the day in 1952 when students demonstrating for recognition of their language, Bangla, as one of the two national languages of the then Pakistan, were shot and killed by police in Dhaka, the capital of what is now Bangladesh.